2021, Docomomo Poceedings
From the late 19th century until WWII, economic distress, religious persecution, and epidemics propelled significant Jewish immigration to Palestine, which influenced the establishment of two dichotomous institutional projects, one rural, the moshava (agricultural colony), kibbutz and moshav; the other urban, Tel Aviv and Haifa new neighbourhoods. Like many contemporaneous settlements world-wide, these projects reflected radical developments: the industrial revolution, massive immigration, modernization and medicalization. The rural and urban modernization project sought to replace polluted and crowded cities. To cope with rampant disease and epidemics, doctors in the country searched out salubrious environments for healthcare settlements and institutions. Mount Carmel, Palestine’s highest mountain near the sea, was their chosen site for settlements, convalescent homes, and sanatoriums, like Meir Shfeya and “Car-mel” sanatoriums.
The architectural design of the sanatoriums was based on an optimal use of nature — wind, air, and sun — to provide restorative conditions, spiritual and physical. This made it possible, to renovate Meir Shfeya sanatorium to a rehabilitative facility for Kishinev pogrom’s orphans; then to a shelter for refugee families; and, finally, to youth village. The reuse of healthcare environments was facilitated by their initial planning, which allowed for accommodations to serve healing and recovery functions.
Examining case studies on Mount Carmel, this paper will re-evaluate the resilience of rural and urban settlements as they pursued and supported healing environments during fifty years of Palestine’s early Jewish settlements. New archival materials will help demonstrate how this resilience was manifest in healthcare architecture — a topic of great importance.
